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Forum:Dtoid trashes DLC4, giving it a 3/10... thoughts?
http://www.destructoid.com/review-borderlands-claptrap-s-new-robot-revolution-184830.phtml Now I know most of us haven't played the DLC yet, but I certainly wasn't expecting a review like this. Given that most of us are ardent fans of the game I doubt it will carry much water here, but thoughts?? SQLc 19:07, September 28, 2010 (UTC) That remark about how the fight against the INAC(and MINAC I assume) pales in comparison to the Craw fights is kind of, well, derp. Craw is supposed to be tough, that's why it's an optional mission instead of a boss fight. If Craw were a requirement to finish the game people would have ragequit long ago. I haven't been on a Craw run yet, but from what I've gleaned from here and the GB forums, soloing Craw is quite a challenge unless you glitch a bit 19:12, September 28, 2010 (UTC) Wow, that was a rough review. Since I haven't played DLC 4 yet I don't know how much I agree. But if after we all play it we agree that it was a lame attempt at making money, maybe it will be time to make BL2. For those who have played it, how much do you all agree? Insomniac9783 19:17, September 28, 2010 (UTC) Maybe its possible that the Gearbox team was diverting their resources to Duke Nuken instead? - Zeph, 03:19, Sept 29, 2010 (GMT+8) *It's interesting that the review mentions that Gearbox outsourced the development of this DLC to some other company. That's the first I'd heard of that. If true then that might explain some of what the author was trying to say with respect to the characters acting somewhat unlike themselves. At the end of the day though, Gearbox has to put their stamp of approval on it before it's released. SQLc 19:23, September 28, 2010 (UTC) I'll wait for the REAL review over at IGN. Also, comparing anything to crawmerax is a moot point. Less than 1% of BLers have actually beaten crawmerax according to RP himself, so why would they make him a MANDATORY boss? Also, it's 10 bucks. 10 bucks to me is well worth a good boss fight and some good orange gear. NOhara24 Although the review seemed to be 'rant-ish', He still provided some solid reasons for the score. I hate collection quests tho...puts a bullet right through your games potential to be fun. Eulogenic 19:49, September 28, 2010 (UTC) Honestly, it's not worth it :( Envy 360 19:50, September 28, 2010 (UTC) Also, after doing some digging, all that guy ever writes about is how much he hates something. Gameinformer came out with another review, they gave it an 8. : Just like anything else, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Truthfully I didn't even mind the Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains mission, and it sounds like the dtoid reviewer thought it was worse than the plague. The GI review comes across as more down to earth and less emotional. SQLc 20:23, September 28, 2010 (UTC) Hmm. This is alarming. The negative review was, indeed, brutally honest, and really nailed where DLC1 went wrong. I notice he doesn't even mention the execrable DLC2 - now THAT was a lazy cash grab - and I worry greatly he's correct on DLC4. To buy or not buy... I guess I've some time before the PS3 version comes out to decide! Dotonehundred 22:44, September 28, 2010 (UTC) Look at the Gameinformer review I posted. It's nice to hear both sides of the story. People on the forums really like it, the guy who wrote it was just trashing the game for being what it is. (Which...if you don't write the game, why do the review?) NOhara24 22:51, September 28, 2010 (UTC) Well i got the DLC today and read the review after i completed the main story quests. The review does have some solid points such as the collect missions but id rate it at a 6/7 for the fact it was fun to play. Dont base your judgement on getting the DLC over that review it is worth getting if you enjoyed the other DLCs See, this is a perfect example of the phenomenon known as "love it or hate it". Some people don't like collection quests. Some people do. Some people don't care if new monsters are simply old monsters with new skins, sounds, and moves. Some people do. Some people get paid to write about games whether or not they like them. Some people don't. Myself, I think he has some valid points, but only like-minded people will appreciate them. For those of us who don't really mind collection quests and old dogs with new tricks, the article may as well not even exist. Laserrobotics (talk) 23:18, September 28, 2010 (UTC) from the interviews randal has made i never got the impression that dlc4/CNRR was outsourced. too bad but it explains the delay. 00:28, September 29, 2010 (UTC) d/l now PC I personally was a bit disappointed with the DLC. Took about half an hour to download and another half hour to beat. I was expecting more from it, but a Hellfire and a stinger with my siren can apparently kill almost every non boss enemy on two seconds... It'll be interesting to see if the level cap patch will make it more of a challenge. Hey guys. Appreciate the comments regarding the review. I'll offer a few clarifications, if you don't mind. I LOVE Borderlands, which is part of the reason why DLC4 was so painful for me to play and to write about (but I do write about how much I love things quite often; dig deeper?). The Braaaaaaaaaains quest didn't bother me in Dr. Ned but it really didn't need to be repeated. Funny once, annoying twice. The comment about MINAC "paling in comparison" to Crawmerax is out of context. I was merely pointing out that while MINAC can be a challenging fight, players should not expect the need for some sort of grand strategy. The biggest disappointment of the whole affair is the utter waste of the potential the scenario held. D-Fault could have been made so much more than just "here's this guy, go kill him." The micro-story between the spa and the hotel could have been pushed further than two short, lame missions. Why wasn't there a single multi-part quest (wherein you reach your goal, but the goal has shifted in some way)? Instead, I'm supplying Marcus with supplies for fried chicken and cologne. That makes no sense to me whatsoever when there was so much that could have been worked with just within the concept of a Claptrap revolution. Anyway, sorry for the length of the comment. Thanks for reading the review and, frankly, for being so reasonable about it. Conrad.zimmerman 20:06, September 30, 2010 (UTC) It's funny, because on the GBX forums, even though many shared your point of view, they wrote the review off as unreliable due to the language, which is ridiculous. I would give it a 6/10, but I can see someone giving it a 3 after all the hype (by players and GBX themselves).GT: ConceitedJarrad XBOX360 20:25, September 30, 2010 (UTC) *Honestly, I can't blame them for that. It certainly was unconventional by review standards, as it literally was an e-mail exchange between myself and another editor on staff. Sometimes those conversations get a little salty with the language and, while I could have toned it down, I wanted to use the more casual nature afforded that framework to demonstrate how I really felt. But it's certainly not what I would consider "highly professional" work on my part, and it's certainly not the review that I would put in a portfolio. Then again, I would make the same suggestion to anyone at Gearbox or DarkSide in regards to the DLC itself. Conrad.zimmerman 20:35, September 30, 2010 (UTC) I think you appropriately captured the anger that a lot of people were feeling. Obviously, it wasn't exactly an AP piece, but there's a bold new generation out there. I don't mind someone letting there emphatic side slip through, especially in op/eds.GT: ConceitedJarrad XBOX360 21:34, September 30, 2010 (UTC) Gearbox is selling themselves up a creek. Reach just released. I'm not even going to bother with DLC4 for BL. Maybe I'll wait until the goty bundled with all the dlc is on sale for $15. Probably not though. They could have done something amazing here. It's a shame they passed up the opportunity. Even just throwing in a few new guns probably would have given it something. Ah well. BL2 might pan out. You never know. WhackyGordon 21:07, September 30, 2010 (UTC) What people need to realize is that these are not full games theyre expansions. General Knoxx was incredibly large for what it is. the size was almost the same as that of the original game (playtime wise). So saying DLC4 didnt live up to knoxx is just unfair. And this review seemeda little harsh. Yes it was mostly true but the game also had some value. But after playing through the game i found it was somewhat disapointing. The amount of collection quests/acheivements seems lazy. and whats the reason for such large maps if your not gonna do anything with them. and yes alot of the enemies were just old enemies with different skins, i found some enjoyable tho (kamikazy traps). overall it definatly seemed lacking but i wasnt too upset about spending 10 bucks on it. Btw wtf is up with tanis Interplanatary ninja assasin 21:42, September 30, 2010 (UTC) ty CZ for joining us. it is my belief the disappointment has two sources. firstly the hype pounded into the public about how gawdawful hugemongous this dlc was supposed to be. secondly was the anticipation of level 69. both are expectations. i expected neither and i enjoyed the dlc, i also like to look in corners of the map for loot and was pleased to see that was included in this content. i was pleased to see the facial animations and i also had the benefit of mr zimmerman's review to reasonabliz/se my expectations. the wait between dlcs was much greater this time leading to heightened expectations, little did we suspect that the studio was working on Duke Nukem Forever. if you watch the videos with the benefit of hindsight notice what _is_ and _isnt_ said. interesting. 00:37, October 1, 2010 (UTC) oh and patti had a "relationship" with her echo recorder, cut her some slack shes just behind on her meds I'll admit right off the bat I've only spent a grand total of about an hour on DLC4. That's actually what drove me to come here and see if anyone's been talking about it - I was thinking, "it IS gonna get better, right? Tell me it's gonna get better." Would that I had waited even a single day to read this review BEFORE plunking down my 10-spot. Everything about that hour was terrible for me. The intro cinematic had me rolling my eyes like someone had just made bad pun ("the KID again? I'm on the BORDER of disliking this Borderlands DLC, nyuk nyuk nyuk"). 30 seconds in I'm greeted by an "intro" of Tannis - who really doesn't need an introduction at all, by the way - and I have to say, Conrad was spot on here. It reminded me of Keira Knightley's character in Pirates of the Carribean 2, which basically struck me as being re-written from the ground-up so as to create pointless love-triangle-drama without taking into account anything she ever said or did in the first film. That's more or less how it felt to watch Tannis babble like a mad scientist with ADD. Like they just re-wrote her character for the sake of a contrived plot device. And then she had me go out and collect zombie bra- excuse me, claptrap parts. Joy of joys. And when I went out to collect these claptrap parts, what was the first enemy I saw? A bandit. And not even a hard bandit either, like a Brute or Ravager. A normal bandit. Like, he was probably the twin brother of the dude I wasted while traveling to Fyrestone at level 1. No AI tweaks to make him harder, no extra health, not even the "claptrap-ization" palette swap; just your average, everyday bandit. I actually alt-tabbed right then and there to check my e-mail receipt and ensure I really did install a DLC called "ROBOT revolution," I kid you not. I was dumbfounded, not by the re-cycling of an enemy in particular, but that absolutely nothing that I had seen thus far was even given a pretense at uniqueness. I was in a nondescript junkyard being shot at by a nondescript bandit and 3 of his friends, in order to fetch nondescript "claptrap parts" for a character who's personality felt retconned into a cliche. And this is what I paid $10 for. I grit my teeth and played on, thinking "well, the egg is hatched - let's see what color the chick is." All the while - and it took a decent while, longer than usual since I was actively searching for innovative material as I went - I was wondering, "why am I shooting bandits in a claptrap revolution? Why aren't the CLAPTRAPS killing the bandits? Where ARE the Claptraps?" Then I found them - all 10 of them - surrounding the Crimson Lance Hyperion outpost, and thought "finally, the game is starting." Then the Crimson Lance Hyperion soldiers shot all the claptraps. And then they started shooting me. Wonderful. When I turned in "part 1" only to get "part 2" of the claptrap fetch quests, I died a little inside. When I was contacted by a "mysterious liaison," I allowed myself one faint glimmer of hope. "Sure it's contrived, but so is all of Borderlands. At least it's not a fetch quest." Then I was given an "intro" scene to Marcus, and that hope was quickly dashed. Once I stepped outside what I assume to be the city limits, and saw bandit palette swaps, I sighed, shook my head, and turned off the game. That was just before I came on here to research this DLC. Now like I said, I've only played an hour or so. And who knows? It might get better! But after reading that review, and deciding I most likely share Conrad's views with regards this game, I wouldn't count on it. Again, it's not even so much the recycling that bothers me as it is that said recycling is BLATANT, especially when it wasn't sold as such. At least with Moxxi, I knew exactly what I was gonna get ("Horde Mode" for Borderlands). And I enjoyed Moxxi! Because there was no pretense of it being anything other than what it was. This, though... This was billed as something that it (apparently) is not. This was hyped as not only new, but story-driven new, content. It is anything but. If Borderlands were a cereal, DLC4's box would read "Same Taste, Less Filling - Now With 50% Less Story!" I'm glad the review was written though. It saved me from spending any more time on the DLC I unfortunately already bought, and it'll hopefully help others when making their purchasing decision. If this one's gonna go down as "love it or hate it," file me squarely in the hate it crowd. __________________________________________________________________ I was waiting for weeks to buy the DLC and I just got finished playing it last night. It was short, and the main story wasn't quite as great as I was hoping, but it was fun to fight the claptraps and I enjoyed the last boss. I did find the game to not have the same great feel as the original game or the general knoxx DLC. It seemed hollow and like it was missing a lot.. almost like the developers were just going through the motions to get the DLC out. I also really thought the bosses were lazy and astonishingly repetitive, except for the final one. That one was good fun. I have to say that 3/10 is a little generous. This is definitely a "brand spoiler" DLC. I recenly watched the God of War II making of clips on the ps3 GOW collection disk, the game director talked about how if he failed, he would be the guy that "fucked up GoW"... well, this DLC and the people responsible are those that "Fucked up Borderlands"... It really was a rehash of hunting Zombie brains, some elements from Knoxx, and claptraps instead of midgets. The environments were largely unmemorable, or terrible in the case of the maze that is sanders gorge. This DLC was like counting down the days until christmas, only to wake up on christmas morning to find that your parents had killed themselves and left a note saying it was your fault and they never loved you. To use the expression "jump the shark" would be far too charitable for this mess of a DLC. The "Credits" should be a black list of names that should never be hired in the gaming industry. Also, did they even use the same voice actor for marcus? There were times when it seemed like a guy doing an immitation of marcus, and sort of giving up half way through sentences... totally weak. This DLC reminds me of the days of 8 bit games, where the game artwork was far more awesome than the actual game... well, the DLC promotional artwork was far more awesome than the steaming pile we all shelled out 10$ for. MarvinRunyon 17:29, October 1, 2010 (UTC) : I'm glad I'm not the only one who was confused by the map design of Sanders Gorge. It's without a doubt the first BL environment I've come across where the map is utterly useless. Honestly the best part about that place is the name; one thing I'll say in favor of this DLC is I had a good laugh at all the KFC digs they made. I suppose it's apropos that question mark was put on the map. Whoever designed that one needs to be drug out into the street and shot. SQLc 19:33, October 1, 2010 (UTC) : : With all the stuff ive been reading about the problems with Duke Nukem, I have a feeling the they said we need some more money to finish this, how can we come up with some. The answer was to hype up a DLC for the best game in thier arsenal and convince everyone that it would be this incredible ending to raise the millions they needed. I truely hope that game is as amazing as BL after all the hubb- bubb. Now i do feel that there was alot of humor to this DLC (Although kind of forced) and the story was ok but short. It just seems like there could have been more content with out alot more effort. I mean the few actual new boss didnt even have unique drops. Steele was just a Lance Assasin in new skin and The MINAC was an easy craw with a reskin as well. Agian it was like they wanted in influx of money for other projects and put in no effort or money then hyped it up(bordering on lieing) to sucker us in.Veggienater 20:23, October 1, 2010 (UTC) : I agree, there were some good humorous elements in the DLC, but it seems like that was the only area where they put in any effort. I'd compare it to "28 Weeks Later", a money grab to cash in on a franchise that had a big previous win (28 Days Later), but was done by different people, ignored what made the previous incarnation great, and was totally lacking in charm. It kills me that some Gearbox lacky was hyping it up as "the biggest DLC yet", and then we get something like a pay-per-view heavy weight fight that lasts half a round. DLC4 is the Phanom Menace of Borderlands. If those RedLetterMedia folks did game reviews, this DLC would be a prime candidate to stand next to their starwars YouTube reviews. MarvinRunyon 20:29, October 1, 2010 (UTC) ____________________________________________________________________________________ After 20 seconds of dialog from Tannis my wife emptied a clip into her. That pretty much sums up the latest DLC. Without going into too much detail for those like me who will still buy it regardless, this DLC seems geared toward all who complained about the previous content. Much of what we all love about Borderlands is gone. The sharp edge to dialog, replaced by a type of juvenile humor. The interaction with known NPC’s removes any sense of familiarity or continuity. New NPC’s are a source of wasted potential. It's not uncommon to wonder if the makers of this DLC even visited any part of Pandora or it's people. The challenge (threat of dying). Any sense of accomplishment is tinged with disappointment. The “Superbad” is anything but. More often than not we're left with the question "that's it?) The Joy of finding various items and weapons. This DLC is overfilled with Chests and loot drops. Even those with the most spacious backpacks will have to leave loot behind. Even the Exploration of all the new places leaves you feeling less like an explorer finding something new or hidden and more like a tourist being led by an obvious “path”. While being able to play in that world still holds some joy and amusement, don’t expect anything new or groundbreaking. The water’s still not on, Jess is still being talked about, and we’re still asked “You seen my gun?” With all the pomp and hype built around this DLC, the gun’s only one of many things missing in this latest addition to our beloved Pandora and one can only hope this isn't becoming a habit. Tobin Greywolf 01:56, October 2, 2010 (UTC) ____________________________________________ New guy here XD While I think that the main enemies may have been a little easy, and that MINAC was a bit weak for an "Endgame" boss, I particularly liked DLC4, especially the Claptrapified returning boss characters (I chuckled everytime Knoxx-Trap had a comment), and the Mr. Blake fellow. It was a little short, and in comparison to some of the past DLCs (Zombie Island being my favorite) it was lacking, but I think it deserved more than a 3/10. Abyss Raider ---- I think Dr F point is 100 correct with the long wait, we all expected something epic, but as soon as i seen the size of the DLC, i kinda figured well it's gonna be similar to Zombie Island, and i was right, they used very similar enemies, just old enemies with new skin, and the new areas borrowed heavily on old backgrounds, (the Hyperion dump is very similar to Crazy earls scrapyard) i do give zombie some extra points for only using dead haven, but i digress, it was not all that bad, and if the patch was out with the DLC i think many would be talking less sheet, i just learned as of reading this forum topic that the DLC was outsourced and that's exactly how it feels, it's still borderlands but kinda not right, i mean what about marcus non matching body, anyone else notice that horrible ass job they did, i mean it was obviously the top half of marcus from the other parts of the game, (We only see the top half of marcus he is always standing behind the counter) and they took that top half and pasted it on some non matching body. Sorry that really erk me for some reason, overall if you have a level 61 character wait until the patch comes out it would more than likly improve your opinion of the DLC, and make you feel less bad about spending another 10 bucks, XBOX GT SinisterNobody 09:28, October 2, 2010 (UTC) ---- I love Borderlands to bits, and all the associated DLC's so far, yet even I was a bit disappointed with this DLC. Perhaps it did deserve that 3/10 it was given. Although, after General Knoxx's DLC, this looks awful. Knoxx brought new levels, guns, vehicles, a huge area...that's the definitive "good" BL DLC, in my opinion. As for hype about CNRR, I had hardly paid attention to it (if at all). I forgot the release date to the game, even, to my shame. However, I didn't expect it to surpass the Secret Armory, but I did expect it to be able to stand up to DLC3 and be a clear victor over DLC1. But that's not what I got. I loaded it up, and took a quick look at the wikia. No new guns, and skill points à la Mad Moxxi's Underdome (that is, complete the DLC once at your leisure for one and grind through it on the other playthrough for another). I got the Claptrap parts quest, and that was no problem to me. I went into a junkyard much like others we've seen and shot the same bandits, and that was no problem either. I thought the Claptraps were quite funny and all, as well as liking the first encounter with the Hyperion guard or whatever. So far, so good. I returned to her, got the next part of the quest, heard from Mr. Blake, etc. Then I decided that I'd try to complete this next part of Tannis' quest right now, and headed back into the junkyard. I was very excited by the Claptrapped enemies - you see, I thought that the Claptraps revived people you killed with Claptrap parts, and everyone else was normal until slain. Soon after, however, came my first problem. The Claptraps that I had killed had not respawned yet. I waited, and waited, and waited, and watched as the Hyperion guard-traps respawned at least twice. Then I left, a bit less excited about the DLC. If Claptraps were this hard to find, than this quest could turn out to be a bigger grind than the Brains line, since those enemies were literally all you saw, albeit you had to get crits to get brains (but that just made it so that I felt super pro after headshotting an entire horde and reaping the spoils). No matter, I thought, I'll just go see Mr. Blake. The big spiral staircase leading to the town was great, and looking over the town was awesome. Walking down, I checked out the place, finding Marcus in his shop and looking at the vendors. As I left, he said a normal goodbye, and I turned around. He was trying to lean on a counter that wasn't there, looking ridiculous. I could go on about this, such as how I lost some more faith in the DLC when I saw that enemies could be Claptrapped before you killed them, was disappointed that the Inn Wars or whatever only lasted two quests (seriously, make it one or several, but not two), how I was really excited about when a train pulled in and let out a bunch of enemies (a friend of mine and I used to imagine what it would be like to have to defend T-Bone Junction from waves and waves of enemies along with the NPCs) but was disappointed when most of the enemies wandered between the train and the track and got hopelessly stuck. I could mention that, while I enjoyed the boss fights somewhat (especially how you can kill the Claptraps in the crowd on at least one occasion), I was very disappointed that bosses like Cluck-Trap and D-Fault didn't drop anything unique, and posed no challenge whatsoever. In fact, the DLC isn't really challenging at all anyways, so it has to stand up on enjoyable quests and such. But that won't work, because aside from some Borderlands-esque memorable moments (such as the KFC jokes), the quests were less vibrant and fun than I had been used to, and there's very few of them. All in all, I, with no hype having affected me, found the DLC to be lacking. I suppose if it had been released with the patch, it would have been better (and why wasn't it? Do they just need an infusion of cash right this instant or something?), and I can only imagine what you who have been exposed to height must think of it. It has its moments, but I find it to be lacking a lot. -- 11:22, October 2, 2010 (UTC) ----